Harvesting Health: How to Build a Clinic-Based Community Garden

Our patients' health is shaped by everyday life, relationships, and the environments they live in. Unfortunately, many communities lack accessible and stable nutrition, which has a negative impact on health outcomes, especially for chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Food deserts, while often associated with urban communities, exist in many rural areas as well. In these regions, grocery stores and farmers' markets are distant or few in number, leaving residents to rely on gas stations, convenience stores, and fast-food restaurants that primarily offer processed, high-calorie foods with little nutritional value.^1,2 This environment, often combined with a lack of nutritional education, discourages healthy eating and promotes dietary patterns that increase health risks.

Conversely, better access to healthy food is associated with healthier eating and lower risk for diet-related chronic diseases.³ Therefore, increasing access to fresh produce is an important step in improving health outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified community gardens as one important strategy for increasing consumption of fresh produce in communities where access and consumption are currently limited.¹ The community as a whole may benefit from such initiatives, especially those that give patients an active role in maintaining the garden and making connections with others.⁴

The purpose of this article is to make a case for a clinic garden, explain how our team financed, established, and maintains our garden, and share the many lessons learned along the way.

Fairfield County, S.C., home to roughly 20,000 residents, is a food desert. Our practice offers full-spectrum primary care in the county and decided several years ago to expand our impact by starting a community garden. Launched in 2020, the garden has grown substantially over the past six years. It has fostered team camaraderie, strengthened connections with the community, and created new opportunities for patient education. It has also been a mechanism to build medical student leadership, with volunteers coming from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Columbia and within the clinic. Most importantly, though, the garden has provided fresh produce to patients in need and engaged them in making healthier choices. Our garden provides an opportunity for patients to learn about healthy eating, and we use it to connect patients with other resources for healthy nutrition.

Our garden began as a single collection of raised beds and quickly grew to a complex series of plants surrounding half our building and using two different irrigation lines. Table 1 summarizes our expansion process. While most of the produce goes to patients and staff, we have been able to donate to the local food bank — and even earned a blue ribbon at the state fair for our rosemary! The experience has been highly rewarding and a selling point to new team members, students, and patients.